Abstract: Following the opening of the Yunnan-Vietnam Railway, a steady influx of popular ingredients, seasonings and cooking techniques of both domestic and international sources poured into Kunming, Yunnan Province. The rise of dianwei (Yunnan flavor) cuisine further facilitated the integration of local and foreign food cultures. “Eating in Kunming,” a series of essays by writer Wang Zengqi (1920–1997), is imbued with gourmet travelers’ nostalgia for various local delicacies, including Xuanwei ham, steam-pot chicken, beef restaurants, mushrooms and street foods such as guoqiao mixian (Crossing-the-Bridge Rice Noodles) and erkuai (kneaded rice flour cake). Upon his arrival in Kunming, Wang’s full wallet allowed him to dream of dining at every restaurant in the city. Later when his finances grew tight, he had to limit his appetite to mixian and erkuai, or queue with his fellow students in the cafeteria of the campus of the war-time National Southwest Associated University (NSAU). During his often unpaid years afterwards as a middle school teacher, he had to rely on wild vegetables to stave off hunger. The “mainstream” food culture of Kunming in Wang’s writings is largely concentrated in the first two of these phases, while the vibrant food scenes of Kunming’s high-end restaurants, vegetarian wine houses, dumpling and noodle shops, and sweet soybean milk shops, as well as the daily dietary practices of both urban and rural residents are largely overlooked. The sweet soy sauce, which arguably best represents the enduring taste of Kunming, remains indistinctly portrayed. His judgments on dairy snacks like rubing (milk cake) and rushan (milk fan), along with other local specialties, often stand in stark contrast to the observations of other travelers. It is undeniable that the “non-mainstream” Kunming dishes, local snacks and seasonings–either intentionally or inadvertently omitted by these visiting food writers–hold considerable research value in their own right.

Key words: Yunnan Province, “non-mainstream” Kunming dish, specialty food, seasoning, cooking technique